Operators of fleet vehicle organizations, such as automobile dealerships or car rental companies, maintain hundreds or thousands of vehicle keys for a parking lot full of locked vehicles which are regularly accessed. However, for purposes of security, the access to such vehicles must be regulated. Security, accessibility, ease of use, portability, reporting, and analysis are all significant factors to consider in the management of a fleet vehicle management environment. Systems known in the art designed to address these factors include vehicle key management systems. Such key management systems are based on the security and management of the actual keys to the vehicles under management.
Known systems include actual vehicle key control products such as Key Trac, Key Logix, Key Systems, 1 Micro, Morse Watchman, KEYper Systems, GE Supra, and KeyWhere. Each of these known systems controls access, provides security, accumulates data collection, provides analysis, and provides reporting by controlling the actual vehicle keys. These systems are essentially key management systems.
A system is needed wherein secure keyless entry is provided to a user for a vehicle in the fleet vehicle management environment without the user needing possession of a vehicle key or a vehicle key fob to gain entry to the vehicle. The technology described herein provides such a system.